Account-registering system



PATENTED SEPT. 20, 1904.

J. I. SCHMITT. ACCOUNT REGISTERING SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 15, 1901.

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UNITED STATES,

Patented September 20, 1904.

JOHN F. SCHMITT, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

ACCOUNT-REGISTERING SYSTEM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 770,478, datedSeptember 20, 1904.

Application filed April 15, 1901.

10 all whom, t muy concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN F. SCHMITT, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Account-RegisteringSystems, of which the following is a specification.

My invention is concerned with certain improvements in the construction,arrangement, and printing' of coupon-books, issued by merchants for theuse of customers in making payment for small purchases to obviate thenecessity of keeping books of account with said customers, and isdesigned to produce a book of that character which will prevent thefraudulent use of the same and at the same time indicate both to themerchant andthe customer the exact condition of the account betweenthem.

To illustrate my invention, I annex hereto a sheet of drawings, in whichthe same reference characters are used to designate identical parts inall the figures, of which- Figure l is a plan view of the book opened.Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same. Fig. 3 isacentral sectionthrough the spring-clip, and Fig. 4 is a section on the line A A ofFig'. 3.

The book consists of the back-pieces a and 7), connected by the flexiblehinge or back c. The back-pieces are constructed cheaply of cardboard,and to form a hard and durable bearing edge thereon l dip bothback-pieces, as indicated by the shaded portions d and e, in japan,creosote-oil, or any waterproofingoil, which serves to harden said edgesso that they can be used in the manner hereinafter described. Instead ofmaking the coupons in the form of separate leaves, as has been thepractice in books of this kind heretofore, I print them in a continuousstrip f, which is fastened at one end to the back-piece and folded sothat it can be held in place by the spring-clip g, which consists of themain portion resting on the folds ofv the strip f and the arms 71projecting beneath the back-piece and serving to hold the clip in place.To

facilitate this holding of the parts and increase Serial No. 55,979. (Nomodel.)

vthe resilience, I curve the edges of the arms it, as seen at j. Theextreme outer end of the strip f is preferably printed in the form of ablank note, as seen at 7c, and before the book is given to the customerthis note is filled out, showing the value of the book, its number, andthe time in which the note is to be paid, and such other items as may beuseful to the purchaser of the note. When this note is filled out anddetached, the book is given to the customer, who then tenders it inpayment of small bills, when coupons amounting to the price of thepurchase are detached.

As will be seen inFig. l, the coupons Z are arranged to extend entirelyacross the strip, and each one is provided with at least three distinctmarkings. The marking' m on the lower edge is the number of the book,and as a dealer never issues the same number of book twice when anycoupons are presented by any party with whom he is not personallyacquainted he can identify them as coming from the book which should bein the hands 'of the original purchaser. At the Lipper edge of the stripare the markings n, Which represent the number of the coupon from oneend, and if each coupon is of the value of one cent, as is preferred,this number also represents the total number of couponsthat have beendetached from the strip. Adjacent the markings n are the markings 0,which are complementary to the markings n and represent the number ofthe coupons from the other end of the strip, and if the value of thecoupons are one cent each that also represents the total value of thecoupons remaining in the book when any particular coupon is detached. Bymeans of this double row of markings n and 0 it will be apparentthat'the dealer and the customer can tell at a glance -how theiraccounts stand, as the number n represents how much the customer has hadfrom the dealer on the book and the number 0 represents how much he canstill draw with the book. If desired, I can utilize the space betweenthe markings m and 0 with another set of markings, p, for the name ofthe dealer or, if desired, any form of advertising matter. The couponsare separated from each other by the printed lines q, and forconvenience in reckoning I make every lifth line r, heavier than theline q.

In use the clip g can be slid along' until the required number ofcoupons are in position to be torn olf, and they can be torn 0H againstthe edge ofthe clip; but the preferable method. is to close theback-pieces of the book and draw out the coupons between the edges Z ande and when the proper number of coupons are withdrawn to hold said edgestogether tightly and tear olf the required number of coupons` which arethen kept by the dealer as a cheek upon the account of the Customer.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

In a device of the class described, the combination with baelvpieees afand b, of the folded strip f secured toone of said back-pieces, and thehard edge e formed on one of said backpieees by dipping it in somehardeningbil.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 13th day of April,1901.

l JOHN F. SCHMITT. In presence 0f- JOHN H. MoELRoY, LAWRENCE LARSEN.

